Venomous
by nachonaco
Summary: "As much as I want to spare your life, it's for the good of the game. We've actually been monitoring you since your transformation…You're slowly becoming more feral. Your lucid moments are becoming fewer and farther apart." **PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!**
1. Calhoun 1: Loss

Paperwork. If there was one thing Sergeant Calhoun hated more than a cybug, paperwork was it (or at least was at the very top of the list). There wasn't much, but Surge Protector was insistent that she do it. Totals, tallies, that kind of thing. She leaned back, pushing her bangs back with a gloved hand. She looked at her wedding photo. "Just a little longer, Felix," she said. "And I can see you again." Then Kohut came into her office.

"Sarge!" He yelled. "Sarge, there's been an accident."

"What do you mean, Kohut?" She asked, and something about his face made her heart drop. "Kohut, what's going on?"

"Your husband-" Kohut choked. "He's dead."

"What?" To add to her heart dropping, her stomach joined in. "Kohut you can't be serious. Please. Please don't lie to me like that." She got up out of her chair and walked over to him. "You know I can't take it."

"It's true. He was brought here by this big purple and red cybug. I've never seen one like it before."

"Purple and re-" She stopped mid-word before getting a running start toward the door. "Kohut, I've got to go. Tell the men I'll be back before opening on Monday."

"You know I can't let you do that."

"You don't have a choice!" She barked, boarding her cruiser and setting off towards her game's exit. She clicked the accelerator with her foot, speeding off toward Fix-it Felix, Jr. "Please be there," she whispered. "Please, baby. Please."

But Felix was nowhere to be found. Instead, Wreck-it was waiting for her. "Hey, Sergeant, have you seen-"

"No," she said, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "Kohut said a cybug got him…but that can't be."

"Well come on," Ralph said. "Let's go look for him. Maybe he's with Vanellope."

* * *

Calhoun entered Sugar Rush, and almost immediately afterward, her body began glowing red. "What the-" She asked, before her curiosity was eclipsed with pain. She struggled to breathe, and when she pulled at her neck she found a collar around it. The collar began to beep and she futilely began to scratch at it. "Wre-Wreck- he-lp m-" She began to cough. "Get it-" She gasped for air as it grew tighter around her neck. "Off!"

She watched as Wreck-it reached for her collar. But as soon as he touched it, he glowed red and screamed before he fell to the ground, dead. "RALPH!" Calhoun screamed. "Ralph, no, please, not you too!"

She was answered with a chuckle. "You've been infected, my dear Calhoun." That's when she saw it, a cybrid. The half-human, half-cybug villain she'd heard about from Wreck-it Ralph was standing before her, and she started to shake. She'd never seen a cybrid in full before. "I could have done so much better," he said. "You look like you've got one of those hedgehog's rings around your neck. Now, one moment." He snapped his fingers and she could breathe again. The collar had been changed from a thick golden ring to a thin, tasteful chain necklace with a ruby dangling from it. She shuddered at his touch as he lifted her chin.

"Stay away from me," Calhoun bit. "I'm not in the fucking mood." She backed away, and found only solidity where the portal should have been. She looked behind her and kicked the entrance with her heel and noted that the area she kicked turned red.

"You're a virus now, my dear. You can't leave," the cybrid said. "Unless I alter its code."


	2. Calhoun 2: Tethered

**A/N: Holy crap, Witch Knight Daisy! It's such an honor to have you read my fanfic! I hope you like it! Do you have Skype? Also, thanks to the anonymous reviewer!**

"Come." The cybug king had already started walking, and Calhoun followed him wordlessly. She wondered if she had much of a choice, given the necklace she wore. She jerked her foot back to test it, but the virus took over and she was vaulted forward. She fell, her Kevlar armor hitting the candy ground with a dull thud. "Are you all right?" He asked gently.

"Fine," she hissed as she stood up. "Don't do me any favors."

"Sergeant, I only asked if you were all right."

Was he genuine?

"Please," the sergeant said. "Let me go back. Let me-"

"If you go back, it will only be a reminder of what transpired. You'll remember Brad Scott, you'll remember Felix. But I'm giving you something new."

"Why save me," she said. "Why not drag me out to another game and execute me?"

"Because I admire your power, honestly," he said. "And I need a queen."

Her blood ran cold. "Okay, you know what, that is it. Get me out of this-" Then her vision went cloudy. She still saw the cybug before her, though he was covered in a film of red.

"Now, now," he chided and snapped his fingers. Her vision cleared. "Is that any way to repay your host?"

She followed him to the candy castle. But where was-

"Vanellope?" She questioned the child's name aloud.

"I'm sure she's out practicing drifts with the other racers," the cybug said. "She doesn't know I've returned yet. I'm waiting for the right moment."

"You won't hurt her, will you?"

"I see you're warming up to me. You have your infection to thank for that." He cleared his throat. "No, Vanellope will not be harmed, so long as I do not meet resistance. Do you remember the licorice clearing where you found the cybug nest?"

"Yes," she said quietly.

"She never goes there – it's near the platformer section. That you were there was a complete fluke. Anyway. When the invasion started, some eggs hadn't hatched. I'm not sure why, but when I respawned, I went back and they had. They've been hiding under there ever since. But back to Vanellope. If she crosses me, she'll be taken to another game, with my cybugs, and eaten."

"Is that what happened to Felix?"

"Yes."

"And you did this so you could have me as your queen, didn't you?"

"Yes. It was the only way I knew how."

They reached the throne room. There was the smell of vanilla and of grapes. She felt a pang of hunger, but didn't say anything. The cybug king gestured to a chair.

"Sit down, make yourself comfortable. You're hungry. Here," he said as he handed her a bit of white chocolate. "It's from my kart. I can't drive it in this body."

Hesitantly, she nibbled at the kart. "I'll be able to go back to my game eventually, won't I?"

"I'm sure," he said. "When I've amassed an army large enough to take on Hero's Duty. You'll be by my side. I'm going to end that wretched game. And even though you'll be a cybug, your men won't attack you."

"A cybug? What? You're insa-"

"Calhoun," he said in a measured tone. "You may be my queen, but I am your king, and you _will_ hold your tongue. I can control how far this virus goes. I know you want to die. It's very much your only thought at this point in time."

He wasn't wrong.

"But I have no intention of killing you. In fact, you're the only one in this arcade worthy of surviving at all." He turned around.

_Be strong_, she told herself. _Get him. Make the bastard pay. Fuck the virus. Don't let it hold you back._ She reached for her knife, her movements slow and labored as the virus tried to protect its master. _Don't make a sound_, she thought.

The king whipped around just as she'd unsheathed her knife from its holster.

"You are strong," he affirmed, then snapped his fingers. Calhoun flinched as she saw the outline of her body glow red again and she was lifted in the air. This time, the pain was not a warning: it was a full-on attack on every cell and bone in her body. "I thought you'd learned your lesson. I suppose not," he hissed. She felt her body be tossed back into a side room. She heard the door lock. "Sarge?" She heard a small voice, the other occupant of the room.

"President," she murmured, still glancing at the door. "Are you all right? He said you-"

"He lied, Sarge. It's what he does."

"Are you all right? He hasn't hurt you, has he?"

She heard the clinking of chains and turned to glance at the once-again usurped ruler of Sugar Rush Speedway.

"Just my pride," the little girl said with a weak smile. "But you're here to protect me, aren't you. That's why he put you in here, 'cause you kicked his butt."

"I wish, kid," she said. There was no need to address her as President, the title had been stripped from her.

"Can you come sit by me?" Vanellope asked.

"Sure, kid," she said softly and went to sit by the girl.


	3. Calhoun 3: Metamorphosis

**A/N: Oh gosh, Witch Knight Daisy! I love your fics so much. Felix and the Cursed Pie is my favorite of yours! Hey, how do I get reviews? I mean I know I've had this posted for like 24 hours, but...I wanna know your secret! Hahaha!**

Cli-click-sshh. Calhoun opened her eyes to the sound of her armor disengaging and removing itself from her body. The little girl who was her cellmate had long since disappeared, and there was darkness in the room as the red lights on her Space Marine bodysuit went out, their function no longer needed since it had vacated.

She'd been asleep. That meant she felt safe, her biometrics were normal – or was the virus acting up?

Strange, to say the least.

"I hadn't expected that." She heard King Candy's voice ad the purple bug entered the room. "Put it back on," he hissed.

He wasn't talking to her, she knew. He was talking to the virus. At the sound of his words, Calhoun felt more fear than she had ever felt (and that included the time she had nearly been eaten headfirst by a cybug while sleeping, the very first night her game was plugged in), and the armor did it job. It reattached itself to her body with such force that her body was shoved back against the wall, away from the candy monster.

"Sour Bill," the king called to his lackey on the other side of the door. "Bring the bug in."

"B-bug?" She asked. "A cybug?"

"Yes, my dear," he said. "Don't play stupid. You know where cybrids came from."

She strayed from thoughts of Brad – who knew if the cybrid king could see her memories. She wouldn't chance it.

Their conversation was cut short by the arrival of the cybug. If she weren't infected, Calhoun would have frozen. Instead there was a natural propensity to go toward the predator.

"The virus is making it too easy," Candy said coolly. "Why don't you fight back a little? You have so much time to be a predator yourself. Why not enjoy your time as prey?"

Calhoun shook.

"Sarge!" Vanellope yelled.

The cybug advanced toward her, launching itself at her. She saw the sickly green glowing light of the cybug's maw, and screamed. She heard her armor crack and felt the rotor blades as they spun and cut into her skin. Her blood clouded her vision. She looked at her skin. Blue patches – where her code was being disrupted and expropriated – appeared. She couldn't move.

So this was what it was like to be dead.

* * *

When she came to, it felt like she'd been hit with one of Wreck-it's punches. God, how she wished he was here now, to kill the cybug and then kill her for not doing it herself. But she had to admit, there were advantages to whatever the hell had happened to her. Her vision was sharper, albeit covered in a neon yellow glow. "Sarge?" She heard the voice of a little girl. Calhoun stared at her. The girl had candy covering her hair, and big green-brown eyes. Calhoun's mouth began to water.

"Food," she rasped.


	4. Calhoun 4: Hunt

The predator said nothing, but stared at her prey while weighing her options. The smell of vanilla blood was plaguing her senses, and oh how she longed to spill it on the marble floors. She swiped at the girl, tearing her clothes. "Kill," she murmured. "Kill you…" She heard the girl's bones crack under the pressure of her claws, pressing the small child against a wall. "Eat you…."

"Sarge, it's me! It's Vanellope! You don't want to-"

For a five-second period, as the girl had the good fortune to be killed in her own game, Vanellope von Schweetz went silent. The light left her eyes for a brief moment, yet the child revitalized before Calhoun could make her move. The child's face was contorted in pain (probably emotional, Calhoun gathered), as the monster maintained her grip.

"My queen," the cybug king placed a hand on his queen's shoulder. "Now's not the time."

She stared at him. _Hungry_, she thought.

"I know, you're hungry. But you won't get to eat her unless you take her out of the game. The second she dies, she'll just regenerate. We'll take her out of this game, all in due time. In the meantime, some of the other racers might curb your appetite a bit. Just make sure you leave eight racers."

* * *

Once she had calmed down, Calhoun took a good look at herself. The top half of her body looked normal. At her waistline, however, was the body of a spider. Three sets of legs were cumbersome, but if it was what she had to work with, it would do. She no longer felt insatiable hunger, her head was clear. She remembered hearing Vanellope's ribcage break, and oh, how exhilarating it – no. She couldn't think like that – she was not going to become a monster.

But she wasn't going to give Turbo the satisfaction of starving herself to death before she could kill him. She had to keep her strength up somehow. Then she remembered: the recolors. It would be easy to kidnap one, they wouldn't be missed.

Boldly, she stepped out of the castle and set off to hunt. She followed the candy scents, her heightened senses almost cloyed by the onslaught of smells. Her cybug instincts were clouding her judgment…but she had to think rationally.

None of the Sugar Rush racers intended to be loners, especially after what had happened to their prin- President. But the recolors were slow to adjust to the new normal, having been seen as second-class citizens. "Hey, Torvald!" A racer called. "Race you to Diet Cola Mountain!"

"You're on!" The butterscotch-themed racer laughed, though she fell far behind.

Calhoun pitied the child.

She kept her breathing low and her movements soft as she went toward the racer. Swiftly, she cupped the child's mouth with her hand before she could scream for help and lifted her off the ground. The arcade was open and there would be no characters in Central Station, so sneaking to another game would be no problem. She'd sneak into her home game.

* * *

Hero's Duty looked different. Her cybug soul made each movement reluctant and hard, and she carried the child with trepidation. Eventually she found a small outcropping, free of the first person shooters and soldiers.

It was time to kill the child and eat. Calhoun brought her needles out and punctured the child's skin. The little girl's skin blanched and she screamed before losing consciousness.

The cry brought forth a skittering noise.

An all-too familiar noise.

"Cybug," Calhoun murmured.

The challenging cybug galloped over to her kill. Calhoun hissed and swiped at it, succeeding in batting it away. She moved closer, intent on making it pay. This was the real her, the one born to kill cybugs. This was who she was meant to be, who Turbo took from her. Now, she realized as thunder crashed around them and rain began to fall. "Go away!" She thundered. "This is my kill!"

What she didn't notice, however, was that the cybug had brought a friend. She had to admit it, the damn things were organized. She heard the telltale crunching of bones (she'd seen at least one unfortunate visiting character perish at the mandibles of the monsters) and then the child was gone. Calhoun turned and launched herself at the thief, who began scratching her with its own claws.

A cybrid had no chance of fighting an actual cybug. Humans relied on their hearts to win a battle, cybugs relied on their brains. Every turn, she would be outmatched. She was still half-human. Calhoun cried out in pain, feeling her left arm's carapace crack as she hit a metal pillar.

The rain fell as she lost consciousness, cursing herself for losing a meal, for being an idiot, and for being a monster.


	5. Calhoun 5: Stay of Execution

Beep. Beep. Beep. Tamora Calhoun opened her eyes and rose from the cold metal floor. She knew those beeps – but why was she here? "Hey, Sarge," the grave voice of her second-in-command, Kohut, greeted. In his hands was a laser rifle. Behind him was an operating table. She stepped forward a few feet, but was stopped abruptly by wires restraining her.

"Kohut," she ordered, the beeps – she supposed it was her heart monitor – going faster and faster. "Let me go."

"No can do, Sarge. You said three years ago, this was what you wanted to happen if you ever became a cybug."

"I ordered you to let me go," she said coolly, removing the needles from her carapace.

"I'm not letting you go. You are a monster and you need to be destroyed."

She lunged at him through the bars, denting one. She brought out her own needles, ready to poison her former friend. If she could only reach him, he would die and she would be safe. She could go back to King Candy and- why was she thinking about him? "Please, please don't do this," she begged. "I don't want to die."

"TJ," he said, and she winced at the nickname. "As much as I want to spare your life, it's for the good of the game. We've actually been monitoring you since your transformation…You're slowly becoming more feral. Your lucid moments are becoming fewer and farther apart."

"I don't want to die. Please, Kohut, I'll do anything."

Kohut sighed, and with that, she knew he was beginning to wear down.

"I'll never come back to this game. I promise. If- If I do, then you can shoot me."

"Tamora…"

She watched as his posture fell. She'd won, but for how long that victory would last, she doubted either of them knew. She heard the whoosh of the bars being lifted. "I'll have Green escort you out. Don't worry, he won't harm you. But I'm serious, if I see you here again…"

"Thank you," she said.

The walk back to Sugar Rush was long. She would live the rest of her years (or however long a cybug lived when no threat was present) in Sugar Rush. After all, there was really no reason to leave. She'd find food somehow, or maybe she'd just stay away from cannibalism as long as her cybug brain lay dormant. As for how long she had before that, who knew.

Her thoughts were racing until she saw King Candy. He looked gravely concerned for her. "Where have you been?" He asked softly. "I was so worried about you?"

"I went out hunting," she said, her head hung low. "And got hurt."

"I can see that," he replied, and she saw his gaze travel across her body, which was no doubt covered in scratches. "Are you all right now?"

"Yes. I'm going to bed." She walked past him and into her chambers. As she entered, she saw Vanellope freeze. The former sergeant did nothing, but instead climbed into the bed and fell asleep.

A short time later, she was awakened by a sound she hadn't heard in weeks. Brr-ding! Tamora's head shot up and she looked at her wounds. They glowed blue, then gold, then…

They were fixed.

"Felix," she murmured.


End file.
